Violens Embrace Remixes and Mash-Ups

On the second song of a free mixtape they dropped late last year, Violens imagine a rock supergroup that really ought to have existed. Nicking the backing track from the Byrds' 'I See You,' frontman and producer Jorge Elbrecht sings the lyrics and melody from My Bloody Valentine's 'Only Shallow,' blending the '60s and '80s influence at the heart of his band's music.

"It's about finding relationships with different songs you never thought had anything in common, and it's usually a huge surprise X song works really well over this part of another song," Elbrecht tells Spinner, explaining his approach to mash-ups. "And then they have a historical relationship sometimes."

Such was the case with the Byrds/My Bloody Valentine hybrid the studio ace felt compelled to create.

"I just always thought the early My Bloody Valentine stuff that sounded like the 12-string [guitar] had a relationship with '60s rock," Elbrecht says, referring to a time before the legendary Irish shoegazers made their instruments sound like factory machines. "I thought it blended really well, and it was fun to hear."

Earlier this summer, before hitting the road with MGMT, Violens released another mixtape, this one comprising covers, tracks by favorite artists and remixes, among them a new version of 'Acid Reign,' the lead single on the band's forthcoming debut album, 'Amoral.' While Elbrecht prefers mash-ups to remixes, he says he enjoys tweaking other artists' songs, as well as hearing how others refashion Violens tracks.

"I think what happens as a mixer is you make a lot of decisions to pull things out," he says. "There's always an element that's spotlighted in the mix and it's usually a vocal, but when the vocal's not happening, there's usually something else you try to pull out, guiding the listener's ear. With remixes, it's an opportunity to take things that got thrown back in space and bring them out and showcase them."

"It's really interesting to listen to other people's productions and solo everything and find some crazy track of I don't know what -- some weird slide guitar thing that sounds awesome -- and taking that and cutting it up and reconfiguring it in some way," he adds.

While Elbrecht would rather Violens be known for its proper songs, such as 'Acid Reign' -- a synthed-out, neo-New Wave hat-tip to Wham, When in Rome and '80s pop acts of their ilk -- he sees the value of creating remixes.

"It's helpful for songwriting because you get to use different kinds of production tools to get different results and apply them to the main songs," he says. "But I've always been more interested in songwriting, playing the guitar and singing."